The Born Adventurer
by adventurecroft96
Summary: This a story about what happens after Lara Croft's adventure on the island of Yamatai! As Lara goes onto her next adventure, Alex Weiss unexpectedly comes back into her life. **WARNING: SPOILER ALERT** I have the whole story written out, but I'll be releasing it chapter by chapter. Hope you enjoy! (Rated M for language) (I do not own anything from Tomb Raider.)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"And that's your local weather for today. In news, we have an incredible story about shipwrecked survivors who had just recently returned to civilization. Two of the four survivors briefly tell us about the disaster." _Jonah Maiva appears in an interview. _

"So Jonah," said the interviewer, "tell us about your experience."

"Well, to put it simply, our crew was on an expedition to find the lost island of Yamatai when a huge storm hit us. As it turns out, we shipwrecked on the very island we were looking for."

"That's certainly lucky and unfortunate at the same time. What are some of the obstacles you've faced surviving on the island?"

"Well it's not your usual survival story. There were inhabitants on the island who were hostile towards us. And it took us a while to send out an SOS. Unfortunately, when a rescue plane did come, it crashed."

"How dreadful." commented the interviewer, frowning. "We have another survivor with us here: Samantha Nishimura." _The camera pans over to Sam._

"How did you end up getting off the island?" she asked Sam.

"We eventually fixed up a boat after gathering parts, and went out on the ocean. A cargo ship soon found us."

"Where did this cargo ship take you?"

"It took us to Japan, which is where we all got treated in a hospital." Sam thought back to when they were in the hospital, and summarized what happened there for the interviewers.

_**11 days earlier**_

"Alright, he says that everyone is safe to go home except you, Lara." Sam explained, translating for the Japanese doctor. "They advise you to stay another night, so they can check for infection." Lara nodded in understanding.

"We'll stay with her," said Reyes.

"No, go see your daughter, Reyes. It's okay," objected Lara. Reyes paused before speaking again.

"Alright, but be sure to call if you need anything." Lara nodded once again, as Jonah walked over to her.

"I guess this is goodbye until next time. Get better Little Bird." He hugged her. As they left, Sam turned to Lara.

"I'm not going to be able to get rid of you, am I?" said Lara with a light smile.

"Nope." Sam returned the smile. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

**_~Time Lapse~_**

Lara opened her eyes. The white walls of the hospital quickly came into focus. She slowly sat up groggily, cringing in pain. _"Ugh...I'm aching all over..." _she thought to herself. Her soreness went ignored until now. The room was peaceful and quiet, unlike the horrors she had just endured on the island. She was alone. No sounds rang out except for the subtle beeps of machinery. Out of pure boredom, Lara scanned the walls for any kind of imperfection. No cracks or marks were visible from where she sat.

"How are you feeling, Lara?" Lara glanced over to see Sam walking in the room with a coffee.

"I've been better," responded Lara with a slight laugh. She rubbed her bandaged arm gently. Sam looked at the ground, and said nothing. Lara twisted her I.V. Line between her fingers, while observing how steam rose out of Sam's coffee. Her thoughts swirled, much like cream of the coffee. It didn't take long before her thoughts drifted to Roth. The loss of him invaded her thoughts more than anything else.

_**Flashback**_

_Lara gasped as she regained consciousness. She coughed, trying to catch her breath as a pair of hands lifted her from the ground._

_ "Come on!" she heard Roth, her mentor, say, as he desperately dragged her away from the helicopter in flames. The helicopter exploded, and the force shoved the two back to the ground. Roth picked Lara up again._

_ "Come on, Lara."_

_ "It's them." said Lara, still struggling to breath, as she spotted some scavengers behind Roth. Roth quickly turned around, drawing a pistol with one hand, still holding Lara with his other arm. He shot the scavengers, otherwise known as the Solarii, with great skill. He grunted at every shot, exhausted from holding Lara and shooting at the same time. Unfortunately, he ran out of ammo as Mathias, the leader of the Solarii, paced towards them. Roth threw down the pistol in frustration. Mathias took one more step forward, throwing an axe in their direction. Roth turned his back to it, in order to protect Lara. As the axe struck the middle of his back, Roth grunted in pain and let go of Lara. _

_ "Nooo!" Lara screamed as she fell to the ground. Roth turned back around, drawing his other pistol, and shot the remaining Solarii. He stumbled and kept aiming his gun to make sure there weren't any left._

_ "Roth!" Lara shouted as he finally collapsed to the ground. "Roth...I can't do this without you." she told him, trying to fight the tears._

_ "I'm sorry, Lara." He paused. "I'm sorry. You can do this. You're a Croft." His head slowly dropped. Lara began crying as she hugged his lifeless body._

_**End of flashback**_

The sound of someone stepping inside the room brought Lara back to reality. She looked up to see a nurse.

"I need to check your wounds, Miss Croft." This nurse spoke English. She stepped carefully to the side of Lara, and began unwrapping the bandage around her arm. Lara grimaced slightly and examined her wound, when it was revealed. _"It doesn't look too bad." _Lara thought to herself. The nurse looked at it a moment longer, then bandaged it again.

"Can you lift up your gown, so I can check your stomach?" Lara lifted the material. Her stomach wound looked worse than her arm. Sam looked briefly before turning away again. Despite the wound's appearance, the nurse consulted the doctor, and Lara was released from the hospital.

Sam pushed open the door. As Lara stepped outside, the sun nearly blinded her. It felt like a completely different world outside of the dull hospital. Loose strands of her hair flowed in the breeze. Lara let out a deep sigh.

"I swear I was going to go crazy if I had to stare at those white walls any longer." said Lara.

"Yeah, we all know that your natural habitat is outside." Sam winked at her. Lara laughed. Then, something hit her. She realized that they were in Japan.

"How are we getting home?"

"My father arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport." replied Sam.

"Oh."

"It should be here any minute." Soon enough, the taxi arrived.

_**Present Day**_

"I'm sorry, father. You were right." Lara whispered to her father's grave, "You were right when you said that mysteries aren't just stories. They do tell the truth. They hold answers. I've found this out first hand on Yamatai...I should have believed you, just as everybody else should have...I'll prove it to them. I'll show the world that you weren't a fool." A tear flowed down her face. Just that one tear escaped her eyes. "I promise, father."

Lara turned around and exited the courtyard, wiping away the tear. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep warm in the chilly weather. A storm was approaching. She sighed deeply, sick of stormy weather.

When she entered the Manor, Winston, the butler who has served the Croft family for years, had a cup of tea ready for her.

"Thank you, Winston." She sat down and sipped the tea. Winston joined her.

"Everything alright, Lady Croft?" Lara paused and carefully set down her tea.

"Yeah." She then pulled out her father's journal from her back pocket and flipped through the pages. "I was just thinking...I might go to Greece."

"Oh, I see...What for?" replied Winston, standing almost stagnantly across from Lara, with his arms tucked behind his back. He always had seemingly proper, professional posture.

"To uncover the truth behind the myth of the Minotaur."

"You mean the labyrinth?"

"Yes, I'm going find its location, if it exists, and see what's left of it."

"You don't want to stay home for a while after your last trip?"

"I just want to stay long enough to study the myth and to do some training." Lara picked up her tea again, and drank more. Winston smiled.

"When are you packing your bags?"

"I think in about three months. That'll give me time to recover fully and start training." said Lara, returning the smile. It was the first real smile she cracked since Yamatai. She set her empty cup down, got up, and turned to walk to her bedroom.

She opened her dresser, selected pajamas for the night, and took a shower. Finally, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her sore muscles. She put her hand on her stomach, where her wound was.

_**Flashback**_

_Lara shrieked as she fell. When she hit the ground, a sharp pain hit her side. She cried out as she looked down to see a that a spike had gone through her stomach. _

_ "Oh no." she sobbed as she grasped it. She took a deep breath before pulling it out. She screamed in pain, clutching her side tightly. A moment later, she tried to stand, moaning quietly, her vision blurred from tears._

_**End of flashback**_

_****_~Time Lapse~_****_

Lara woke up later than usual that morning. She stepped out of bed, got dressed and headed out into the hallway. Instead of going downstairs to have breakfast, as she normally would, she went to the library, eager to start researching the myth. She sat down at the only table in the room and opened her father's journal.

_Theseus and the Minotaur_

_-King Minos lived on Crete, the island and had a labyrinth with the Minotaur in it_

_-He fed Athenian people to the Minotaur every nine years_

Lara kept scanning through her father's notes until she found something that was unfamiliar to her.

_I've read up more on the myth and have found a few books that mention an old women named Agneta that told people about a treasure underneath the labyrinth. A powerful artifact of some sort._

Lara saw a couple book names listed underneath the entry. She got up and searched for one. A few minutes later, she found it: "The Book of Many Myths". She flipped to the back to look at the index and found the name she was looking for. She then turned to the correct page and scanned the page to find where it mentioned Agneta. Once she found it, she read the details. The information matched her father's notes.

She closed the book and went back to reading her father's journal.

_"I can't wait to begin this expedition. My partner, Jake, and I have discovered a clue to the Labyrinth's location: A riddle. I'm departing for Greece three days from now."_

Lara read the next few entries, before reaching the final one about Greece.

_We tried for a couple days to decipher the meaning behind the riddle. We figured out parts of it but haven't reached the Labyrinth yet. Amelia called from home, saying that our precious baby girl will be born within the next week. So we are headed home. I hope to come back eventually to figure out the rest of the riddle's meaning and hopefully find the Labyrinth._

After finishing the entry, Lara scanned the page for the riddle. Unfortunately, it was not written. Lara closed the journal carefully, slightly frustrated. She walked out of the library with food on her mind.

"You're awfully late to breakfast. Everything alright, Lady Croft?" asked Winston with concern, as he put food on the table for Lara.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just reading in the library." said Lara. She sat down and began to eat. She placed her hand on her head after realizing that she had a throbbing headache. Winston sat down with a newspaper.

"Winston?" Lara said after a few moments.

"Yes?"

Lara hesitated before speaking. So many people had died for her, but why? Why did so much tragedy have to occur, only for her to find out that her father was right all these years? _"I should have believed my father." _She tells herself this over and over. _"Things would have been different. I could have supported him all those years." _She thought back to when she used to go on archaeological digs with her parents. There was some point in that time period when her father began speaking of ancient myths and stories that actually had truth to their histories. Unfortunately, no historians believed her poor father. Articles in newspapers began making him appear as a madman, destroying his reputation he once had as a great archaeologist. He carried that new reputation for the rest of his life. Right up until his tragic death. At the time, Lara also rolled her eyes when it came to her father's claims of myths being real, but she now regrets it, realizing how much she had to go through to believe her father today. Realizing the gravity of it all was so much to bear all of a sudden.

"Why do sacrifices have to be made in this world?" she finally asked. Winston paused, taken aback by the question.

"Sacrifices are made in return for a chance at something good happening." he said, setting down his newspaper. "_A chance at something good happening..." _Lara repeated in her head, _"What good came out of Roth's death? Alex's?" _To her it seemed like all that came out of those experiences was more heartache. More internal conflict. More guilt. _"It would be so much easier to doubt my father," _she thought bitterly to herself. But now that she knows the truth, she can't ignore it. She must carry on with it, and satisfy her curiosity of what else her father was right about. After finishing breakfast, she went to the kitchen to take an aspirin. She gulped down some water with the pill and headed back to the library.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Time crept by, week after week consisting of Lara researching and Winston making her rest during the day, as much as she didn't want to. The day has finally come: The day she starts training. Lara felt she needed to get back into shape after a long time of healing.

Lara flicked the light switch on. Before her eyes, the many ramps and obstacles appeared, untouched since her father's death. She tightened her fingerless gloves, finally ready to start training since the pain in her stomach wound subsided. She walked up the the nearest ramp and touched it. Dust rubbed off onto her fingers.

She dusted her hands off. For so many years, she has avoided this room, the very place her father trained for his expeditions. She walked away from the ramp to get a running start.

She glanced ahead to see what came after the ramp. A horizontal pole was set up and next up was a ledge. After seeing what she had to do, Lara tightened her ponytail and made a run for the ramp. She leaped off of it onto the pole. As she swung her body forward to make the jump for the ledge, the pole shifted its direction and she jumped towards an empty wall with nothing to grab instead. Lara fell to the floor, hitting her arm off the wall. She got up, holding her arm and slightly gasping in pain. _"So I have to time it right..."_

"Thank you, Winston." Lara accepted the towel he handed to her and dabbed the sweat off her face. She left the training room and made her way up to her room. Throwing the towel in the hamper by the door, she walked towards her wardrobe. She opened its wooden doors and scanned it for fresh clothes. Her eyes came across something else first, though.

There, on one of the shelves lied two pistols. She slowly picked them up, thinking of Roth, whom they originally belonged to. She grabbed the set of holsters and fastened them around her waist, and finally slid the pistols into them. She left the room and went outside.

She entered the outdoor training grounds, where red targets were set up. She stood before one, drawing her guns. Steadily aiming at the target, she concentrated on the center and fired one pistol. The bullet hit the target, but missed the center. Lara drew in a sharp breath and thought about Roth's advice about focusing. About how important it was to focus in order complete any task. She aimed the guns again, this time taking more time to concentrate. She fired one gun and the other immediately after. One bullet hit the center. She fired a couple more bullets before she ran out. _"I'm definitely going to have to get more ammo at some point," _she thought to herself, as she walked back inside.

Four more weeks have gone by. Through this blur of a time, Lara became a more agile climber, and her shooting skills were to the point where she became somewhat deadly with a pistol.

Lara came back inside from another day of training. Winston stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

"I was just coming to tell you that there's someone on the phone for you," he explained. Lara thanked him and went to get the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi Lara, it's Sam. Listen," she paused. "I was wondering if you'd like to hang out today for a little bit, since it's been a while." She sounded as though something was itching at her.

"Sure. Everything alright?" Lara asked, while lightly tapping the wall with her fingertips.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll see you soon, Lara," she answered rather quickly.

"Okay, see you soon, Sam."

Lara hung up the phone. _"Sam really doesn't seem like herself." _Sam was usually the talkative, outgoing type. _"I hope she's okay."_ She climbed the stairs to go take a shower. After getting dressed into clean clothes, she pulled her hair back into her usual ponytail, and slid her boots on.

"Winston, I'm going out to Sam's," Lara shouted as she grabbed her keys.

"Alright," responded Winston from the kitchen.

Lara turned the radio on as she drove away from the manor. The song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by her favorite band, U2, came on, but was ending. Disgruntled, Lara changed the station. Within twenty minutes, she arrived at Sam's.

"Hi, how are you?" Sam asked, hugging Lara after opening the door.

"Good, how about you?" Lara asked, returning the question.

"I'm good. Come in." Lara stepped inside and sat down on the couch in the living room.

"So what have you been up to lately, Sam?"

"Just been doing more photography and organizing footage I recently got." Sam sat in a chair across from Lara.

"You got more footage? Of what?"

"My instructor of the photography/documenting class I'm taking has asked me to do a small report on life in England. So I've been traveling around a little with some classmates and getting footage of different places."

"Is this a college course your taking?" asked Lara.

"No. I found this class in an ad. So I'm giving it a go."

"I see."

"Yeah. So how about you? What's been going on in the adventurous world of Lara Croft?" Sam asked with a wink. _"Now that's more like Sam,"_ Lara thought to herself. Sam got up and walked over to a desk stationed in the corner of the room.

"Not much yet. I've been training and planning a trip to Greece," she said while stretching her arm.

"What have you been training for?"

"To uncover the mysteries behind the Labyrinth of the Minotaur."

"What exactly are you going to be finding out?" asked Sam while sat down and opened her laptop.

"Well, there are some books that mention an old villager that lived outside of Athens. She goes by the name of Agneta. It is said that she told rumors of a powerful artifact within the labyrinth, that the king kept to himself."

"Ah, so you're going to search the labyrinth for this artifact?"

"Yes. It is believed to be a myth, but I'm gonna find out for myself," said Lara.

"I see..." Neither of the girls said anything else. Lara turned around to see Sam staring at the floor, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"What's wrong Sam? You haven't been yourself lately," Lara finally asked. Sam made eye-contact before returning her gaze to the dark blue carpet.

"I...I just feel bad about all that you went through to save me a number of times back on Yamatai." She put her head into her hands. "I should've known about Whitman...I shouldn't have trusted him, I'm sorry, Lara..." Lara rose to her feet and walked over to Sam.

"It's okay," she said as she grasped Sam's shoulder. "Whitman's intentions were hard to identify. But it's over now. I'm just glad that we both made it home." Sam stood up and hugged Lara. Lara smiled at her as she sat back down. Lara turned to go sit back down.

"So, are you thinking about taking a career in photography, then? Sam?" Before she sat down, Lara noticed no response once again. She glanced behind her. Sam sat motionless, staring into her computer screen, her face extremely pale.

"Sam, what's wrong?" asked Lara with concern.

"Uh...I think you should look at this email I received." Lara slowly stepped behind Sam to see what she was looking at. She didn't bother reading who it was from. Her eyes scrolled over the message.

"_Hi Sam. I don't really know exactly how to tell you this, but I'm alive! I managed to make it back home, it's a rather long story though. Well anyway, I just thought I'd let you know, since I don't have contact with any of the others. I hope everyone's doing well. Perhaps we can all get together sometime._

_ -Alex_

Lara read over the words again, her mouth gaping open. She couldn't believe it. Neither of them moved for a minute. Lara suddenly grabbed the keyboard and responded.

_"Call me as soon as possible."_

Lara then typed her number, and hit send. She breathed deeply, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Lara, you do know you sent that on my email, right?"

"I know," responded Lara, still staring at the screen, "It's very important that I speak with him though."

"Oh..." Silence crept up on them.

"How the hell did he survive?" wondered Lara out loud.

"I have no idea. The ship went down within seconds after the explosion." Lara's mind suddenly flashed.

_**Flashback**_

_Lara rushed through the doorway. She saw Alex on the floor, unable to move, due to a pipe crushing his leg._

_ "Oh, Alex..." she said quietly, crouching down in front of him. "You got the tools."_

_ "Finally! I impress you," responded Alex, laughing a little._

_ "Let's get you out of here." Lara placed her hands on the pipe and tried to shift it. She quickly stopped when Alex shouted in pain._

_ "Oh god!"_

_ "Oh! Sorry! Sorry..." apologized Lara._

_ "Well, it looks like my dance career is over," joked Alex, despite the seemingly hopeless situation. Lara laughed lightly before some of the Solarii began shooting at them. Alex shot at an explosive, which wiped the men out. _

_ "What are you doing?! You'll kill us!" Lara shouted, frightened by the explosion._

_ "I'm not gonna make it out of here, Lara. Take the tools."_

_ "Not without you," Lara objected immediately._

_ "How often does a guy like me get to be a hero?" he asked desperately. Before Lara could answer, another scavenger began shooting at her. She panicked and quickly scooted next to Alex, where she couldn't be hit. More of the Solarii began swarming in. Alex held the tools up to Lara._

_ "The others are counting on us." Lara hesitated to take them._

_ "Go!" commanded Alex. Lara shook her head with a sad look on her face._

_ "Now!" Alex commanded once again. This time, Lara took the tools, leaned in and quickly kissed him on the cheek before rushing out of the room. Shortly after she closed and sealed the door, she heard another explosion._

_ "Alex!" she sobbed out loud._

_**End of flashback**_

Lara and Sam talked for a little while longer before Lara decided to head home.

"Drive safe, Lara." Lara hugged Sam, and made her way to her car. She yawned while starting up the car.

When she arrived to her home, she immediately went up to bed. Lara pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes to sleep. Within minutes, she realized that she wouldn't be able to. _"Gosh, what am I going to say to him when he calls. I definitely should apologize for leaving him behind back on the Endurance, but how?"_ She tossed and turned on this thought all night until the sun finally came up. Lara got dressed and went downstairs to breakfast.

"Good morning, Lady Croft," said Winston.

"Good morning," Lara said sleepily, slumping herself down in a chair at the table. She sipped her tea as Winston set some toast in front of her. She thanked him and gratefully ate. When she finished, she rubbed her sleepy eyes, knowing that she would be too tired to train at the time. Instead, she decided to spend some time in the library. She sat before all her open books and notes, beginning to look through everything she could once again.

"You know, all that reading's probably going to make your brain exhausted." Lara turned to see Winston standing in the threshold of the door.

"I'm fine, Winston. Reading doesn't bother me at all," she said softly, knowing very well that he was right. She was tired, in fact, sick of reviewing her father's notes and studying the same excerpts from the same books. _"Better to be prepared,"_ she countered in her head, thinking about how ill-prepared she was back on Yamatai.

"Lady Croft, if I may, can I offer you some advice?" He walked towards her. "Take some time to yourself every once in a while. You're physically and mentally exhausted from training and preparing all these weeks. You seem rather tense, lately." Lara looked away from Winston and stared straight ahead, saying nothing. Winston touched her shoulder and placed car keys on the book in front of her.

"Just please try to go out to the park for some fresh air sometime today." He turned and walked away. Just before he got to the door, Lara spoke out.

"Winston?" He turned to face her. "Thank you." she said. She really was thankful for him. No one else ever told her to take it easy on herself, other than Roth. Winston nodded with a polite smile and left. No later than twenty minutes after Winston left, Lara passed out, her head resting on her books.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Lara woke up, hearing the phone ring. She hastily got up and ran to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Sam?"

"No, it's Lara."

"Oh, I thought Sam sounded different, haha. This is Alex. How are you?" Lara's heart jumped as soon as he said it was him.

"Alex...I don't even know what to say..."

"Something wrong, Lara?"

"No, it's just...Alex, I'm so sorry...f-for what happened on the ship." She slumped against the wall in sorrow.

"Huh? Oh, no, don't be. I'm really glad you made it home."

"I'm glad that you did too," replied Lara. It was silent for a moment.

"So how come you answered the phone and not Sam?"

"That was my number in the email. I really wanted to talk to you."

"Oh..."

"How did you survive that explosion?" Lara asked finally. She stood on one foot and swung her other foot back and forth while listening.

"Well...honestly, it was all kind of a blur. I remember debris flying and getting cut on my shoulder by something. And the force of the explosion sent the pipe on my leg flying. And then I was suddenly in the water. I washed up on shore and passed out."

"Oh god...what happened after that?" She stopped moving and clutched the phone closely.

"I woke up to the voices of some of the Solarii washing up on the shore, so I crawled behind a rock to avoid them seeing me. I think there were two or three of them left after the ship went down. But anyway, I tried my best to bandage my leg with some cloth I had in my pocket, before passing out again. When I woke up this time, a pilot was with me. He had extra supplies with him, so he cleaned and bandaged my wounds. He took me to his hiding place and explained to me that his plane went down when he got near the island. He also told me that he's been conserving his radio battery and that he'd try to send out another signal when the skies cleared up for sure, since I told him that the storms kept bringing down the planes that come here. A day or two later, after a really rough storm, the clouds cleared, and the whole island brightened up. That's when the pilot sent out the signal and a rescue team came and got us."

"How are your wounds?" Lara asked, not even bothering to explain why the whole island brightened up.

"They are doing much better. My leg was treated in the hospital for about a month. I got out of the hospital a while ago and I'm able to walk and everything."

"Thank god," said Lara, relieved to hear that he was okay. A pause occurred.

"So did Sam call you yet?" Lara quirked an eyebrow, confused.

"No, why?"

"Oh. She told me she was going to call you today to tell you about her get-together she planned," explained Alex.

"Oh, okay."

"So how did the storms on the island stop?"

"Well it sounds kind of crazy...Whitman took Sam to Mathias and Mathias started performing the ritual, and-"

"Whitman actually _took_ Sam to Mathias?! Why?" interrupted Alex.

"I don't know exactly...I guess he felt that he could befriend Mathias or something...he seemed rather obsessed with learning more about the island, while the rest of us were just trying to escape the bloody place."

"So..what's this ritual you mentioned?"

"Mathias started this ritual in which the soul of Himiko was being transferred into Sam's body from Himiko's statue. Luckily, I got there in time to destroy the statue and doing so released her soul stopped the storms." It took a while for Alex to respond.

"Why was Mathias performing the ritual?"

"He believed that completing the ritual would please Himiko and set everyone free. But I knew that Himiko was too angry and dangerous. Sam said it herself: Himiko was a ruthless and powerful leader. So I couldn't risk the revival of her."

"Wow. There was a whole lot more to Yamatai than I thought..."

"Yes. It's all hard to believe, but true. You can even ask Reyes." She scratched her neck.

"I believe you," said Alex while laughing.

"Alright." Lara laughed with him. A silence occurred.

"Well, I guess I gotta get going soon, so maybe I'll see you at Sam's get-together?"

"Yeah, sure. Bye, Alex."

"Bye." Lara hung up the phone and sighed, her fingers still lingering on the phone. She felt a sense of relief washed over her as she thought about the conversation she just had._ "He's okay," _she thought joyfully over and over. She stood inert for another minute, then proceeded to the kitchen. As she opened the fridge, she caught a glimpse of the time displayed on the stove. _"Bloody hell, I slept for 2 hours!"_ She took out a bottle of water and went upstairs to her room. There, she picked out a pair of black shorts and a tight black shirt to wear inside the gym. On the way down, she grabbed a towel from the bathroom.

When Lara reached the gym, she set the water bottle and towel in the corner. After sliding on her fingerless gloves, she dashed for one the starting ramps. She leaped off of it and latched onto the bottom of a rock wall. She climbed up it quickly, not missing a single ledge. When she reached the top, she jumped to the right, and slid down a slanted surface. She kicked off the edge, launching herself in the air again. She grasped a ledge pinned to the wall with both hands. After the impact of the land, her right hand slipped, and she was left dangling with one hand. Grimacing at the drainage of strength in her left arm, she quickly lunged her right hand upward to catch the ledge. She took a moment to breathe, then continued. She jumped up to the ledge above her, and climbed to the left. Finally she jumped onto one of two zip lines she had installed recently. She rode it down and jumped off onto the mat on the gym floor. When she stood up straight, she wiped the sweat off her forehead. After catching her breath, she walked over to the corner to get a drink. As the water ran down her thirsty throat, she dabbed her face with the towel. She recapped the water bottle when she was done, and turned back to the ramps to do more.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

Lara trained for while longer before deciding to go take a shower. She stepped inside, enjoying the feel of the hot water running down her back. As she lathered shampoo in her hair, she thought about what she wanted to do next. The riddle that her father mentioned in his notes came to mind. _"Maybe I can get that riddle. I hope father at least wrote down where he put it. I guess that's what I'll do next." _she concluded in her mind, as she rinsed out the shampoo and applied conditioner. She finished her shower and carefully stepped out and wrapped a towel around her. She picked up her hair brush and wiped the water vapor off the mirror with her hand.

Before she began brushing her hair, she took a look at herself in the mirror. _"You can do it, Lara. After all, you're a Croft,"_ she heard Roth say in her head. She thought back to when she never believed that should would be like her father. She never thought she would be as brave and daring as him. She never thought she would chase after mythical artifacts and locations. And now, here she was, planning a solo expedition to find a labyrinth in Greece.

Everything is different this time around. Before, on her expedition to Yamatai, the search was based on logic and evidence. Now, after encountering Himiko's curse of the storms on the island, she has to account for the things that are seemingly impossible, but in fact, could be real. _"Yes, Roth," _she answered proudly through thought, _"I am a Croft." _She then brushed her hair and got dressed.

She left the bathroom and walked to the library. As she approached the table, Lara caught a glimpse of the set of keys that Winston left there earlier. She thought of what he said to her. Without further hesitation, she grabbed the keys and prepared to leave the Croft Manor to take a break from everything. She said goodbye to Winston as she slid her bomber jacket on and exited the through the main doors. She got inside her car and took off.

She arrived at the local park and stepped outside of her vehicle. The cool, breezy weather greeted her skin. She strode towards the sidewalk path, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. While walking, she thought of all that she had accomplished. She thought of all the preparations, the nonstop training, and all the researching. _"Winston is right. I really haven't taken a break since I got home." _

Eventually during her stroll, Lara reached a creek. An idea came to mind. She crouched down and scanned the rocks and pebbles near the bank of the creek. She found a nice flat, round rock and picked it up. She stood up, moved her arm back, and flung it forward, releasing the rock. It skipped across the surface of the water several times, then sank to the bottom. She grabbed another rock and did it again. When she picked up a third rock and looked up, she saw Mathias standing on the other side of the creek, sneering at her.

"There are no heroes here, only survivors," he yelled out to her.

_ "You've got to make sacrifices, you can't save everyone," _she heard Roth say in her thoughts.

_"Seems like anyone caught with you has a pretty low survival rate,"_ said Reyes, again, in her head. Lara covered her ears, attempting to block all the memories rushing in. She clutched the rock tightly, her knuckles whitening. Finally, she screamed out and threw the rock violently at Mathias.

_ "Clonk!" _Almost unable to breathe, she looked back up to where Mathias was, only to find a tree. Lara sank to her knees and began weeping. After a couple minutes, she finally pulled herself together. She stood back up and continued on the path, feeling as if a huge weight's been lifted off her back. The breeze combed through her loose strands of hair, as if it was trying to soothe her. Lara walked on, absorbing the calm environment around her. It was fall. The colorful leaves floated around her, being carried by the wind. On her way back to her car, she received a call.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Lara, it's Sam."

"How are you?" asked Lara.

"I'm good," responded Sam cheerfully. "Has Alex called you yet?"

"Yes, he did."

"Good. Did he tell you about my plans?"

"Yeah, he told me that you wanted to have a little get-together. When did you want to have it?"

"I invited everyone to meet at the Blue Lights this Friday. It's a club two miles from our area. Do you think you'll be able to make it?"

"I don't know yet. Possibly," responded Lara, not feeling too enthusiastic about going out to a club.

"Listen, Lara. Winston picked up when I called your house," _"Oh no, what did Winston say to you?" _Lara thought in her head. "And he said he was a little concerned about you. He said he wishes that you would take more time to relax, and I agree." _"Clever, Winston," _Lara thought humorously.

"It's up to you, Lara," continued Sam, "But please at least consider it."

"Alright, Sam. I'll go," answered Lara, knowing that Winston would make her go anyway.

"Awesome! We're all meeting there at 8:00."

"Okay, I'll see you there," said Lara happily.

"Okay, bye, Lara." Lara pocketed her phone and slipped inside her car. She started the engine.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

When Lara returned home, she went to the kitchen to have some lunch. After that, she went straight to the library again, determined to figure out how to get a hold of that riddle. She carefully went through her father's journal, scrutinizing every page for a clue on where the riddle is. It didn't take her long to figure out that her father hadn't written down anything else about it. Frustrated, Lara leaned back in her chair. After a minute of deep thought, Lara decided to go ask Winston if he knew anything about it. She found him in the kitchen and told him about the riddle she was looking for.

"I actually think his partner had it written down. He might still have it," he said.

"Do you happen to know his phone number?"

"Unfortunately not...but it might be in your father's address book. I'll go fetch it for you." Lara waited in the kitchen until Winston returned with a little brown book in his hands. He handed it to her. Lara eagerly flipped through it for the name "Jake". Lara's face lit up when she found an address.

"Excellent. I'll go out to find him this weekend, after Friday night. Thank you, Winston." She smiled appreciatively as she left the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Friday evening finally came around after a couple days. Lara opened her wardrobe to choose a dress for the occasion. She hadn't touched a dress in a while, since she hardly ever wore them. She selected a tight champagne-colored dress that reached her knees and had ruffles near the collar of the dress. She put it on, pulling the spaghetti-thin straps over her shoulders. Shortly after, she went into the bathroom to do her hair and make-up. When she finished, she made her way downstairs, while putting some finishing touches on her messy bun. Her beige eyeshadow and black eyeliner complimented her brown eyes. She said goodbye to Winston and left the Manor.

Lara parked in front of the club and walked towards the door. A man sat, stationed in front of the door. Lara showed him her I.D. and stepped inside. She was greeted by a huge blast of music and lights. She wandered around in the crowds before she spotted Jonah sitting with Sam and Alex at a circular table that was positioned away from the loud music. A feeling of uneasiness came over Lara when she saw Alex. She walked over to them. They all greeted her with smiles on their faces.

"You made it! Wow, Lara. You look great," said Sam, who was wearing a black dress that reached her knees.

"So do you, Sam," said Lara with a smile. She nervously faced Alex.

"It's good to see you again, Lara," Alex said, with a polite smile. He had a dress shirt with a black tie on, which matched his black pants. His sleeves were rolled up. Lara instantly felt relieved.

"It's good to see you too, Alex." Everyone sat back down and Lara sat in between Alex and Sam.

"Where's Reyes?" she asked.

"She couldn't make it," replied Sam. "She didn't seem to want to leave her daughter for a second. I can't say I blame her though...So what were you saying, Jonah?"

"Yeah, so that critic that came to my sister's cafe gave it bad reviews! He said that the food was good, but wasn't 'textured' right. Such bullcrap."

"Some critics just...they just over-do it..." said Sam, shaking her head. _"Wow, it's weird seeing Jonah in a dress shirt," _thought Lara to herself as the conversation carried on.

"I can't believe that he focused on the texture of the food, rather than the taste of it..." continued Sam.

"Some critics are just flat-out crazy," said Lara. "Did you know that one critic gave our favorite diner a bad review. Remember that diner near our campus, Sam?" Sam frowned.

"Yeah, we used to go there all the time. It's a great place. It's crazy how someone has something bad to say about it."

"Yeah," agreed Lara. Just then, the song "Everybody Talks" came on.

"I love this song! Come on, Lara!" screamed Sam in excitement as she sprang from her seat and dragged Lara to the dance floor. Sam sang the words as they both danced individually. Alex and Jonah stared in amusement, laughing with each other. Alex wondered how Lara can look so amazing while doing anything, even dancing in a goofy way. When the song faded out, the two girls returned to their friends. They sat down and tried to catch their breath. Some strands of hair fell out of Lara's bun.

"Did you get a work out over there?" Jonah asked, laughing a little.

"Yeah," said Lara. "And I got stretch in beforehand. Sam nearly pulled my arm out of my socket from dragging me along with her." They all laughed.

For the next hour and a half, the group talked and shared what was going on with each other. Alex however, remained rather quiet most of the night. Lara sipped at a glass of wine while Jonah talked about how he was staying at Alex's apartment for the weekend.

"Yeah, you should see the place. Looks like a tornado went through it," Jonah said while laughing.

"Liar," countered Alex, with a light laugh. "You have to admit that it's better than living on Yamatai. Man, that place was awful..." Everyone became quiet, thinking of the horrors they've endured. The pain they felt. The deaths they faced. Lara especially felt a thorn pierce her side. _"It was all my fault..." _She didn't dare say it. After a few moments, Sam finally spoke up.

"Well, at least we made it home. Let's try to forget about it and have a good time tonight." She raised her glass. Everyone else raised theirs as well, clanging them together. Sam set down her glass and stood up.

"I'll be right back, I'm going to the restroom." Shortly after she left, a slow song flowed in. Lara heard her name. She looked back to see Alex standing before her.

"W-want to dance?" he asked. Lara forced a smile, despite the pain in her heart.

"Sure." They both stood up. Alex took Lara's hand and led her to the dance floor. He paused before slowly placing his hands on Lara's waist. Lara wrapped her arms around his neck. They began to sway as the lyrics of a slow tune kicked in. Lara studied Alex's appearance. His hair was messy, but in a good-looking way.

Alex gazed back at Lara as the lights flashed. The loose strands of hair around her face always made her look amazing to Alex. Her brown eyes twinkled and held deep emotion at the same time. _"God, she's beautiful,"_ thought Alex.

Alex pulled Lara closer, wrapping his arms around her completely. Lara, who was a bit surprised, hugged him back and leaned against his shoulder, still swaying to the music. A scent of cologne filled Lara's nostrils. Alex suddenly stopped moving, and pulled away a little.

"Everything alright, Alex?" asked Lara loud enough, so that Alex could hear her.

"Yeah." he responded. Lara awkwardly just stood there, waiting for him to say something else. But instead, he leaned in slowly, hesitating for a moment before gently kissing her lips and pulling her close once again, as the guitar solo came into the song. Lara grasped his sleeves and kissed him back lightly. After a few seconds, they pulled apart and continued dancing. Lara smiled shyly at Alex, who smiled back. When the song faded, the two of them walked back to their table. Sam grinned at Lara as she sat down.

The night went on with everybody talking, dancing, and laughing. The place seemed so alive, as any club would, for the floor rumbled beneath them, due the the music streaming out of the large speakers by the dance floor. Jonah had one too many drinks and ended up falling backwards out of his chair. At this point, everyone giggled and decided that they should head out. Lara and Sam said goodbye to the guys, as they headed towards Lara's car.

"Goodbye...Liiiiitle Birddddd..." said Jonah, as Alex helped him into his car. "Tweet, tweet..." _"It's a good thing that Alex is driving," _thought Lara as she unlocked her doors. Before she could get in, she saw that Alex was quickly walking towards her.

"Hey Lara, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure." Lara began striding over to him, while Sam got in the car.

"What is it?" she asked as she approached him. Alex waited until she stopped in

front of him to talk. He hesitated before speaking.

"Would you like to go out sometime?" He rubbed his neck nervously. Lara smiled, although taken aback by the question.

"I'd like that." Alex laughed in relief.

"Alright, I'll call you," he replied, smiling. Lara returned the smile. After a long pause, Alex piped up.

"Well, goodnight, Lara." he said, grabbing her arm and gently pulling her so that he could leave a kiss on her cheek. After a mere second, Alex released her arm and turned to leave, leaving Lara standing once again in astonishment. Lara quickly composed herself as she climbed into her car. She looked over to the passenger seat to see Sam smirking.

"What?" she asked, trying to keep herself from blushing.

"Do I really have to say?" Lara looked away, hiding her smile. She shoved her keys into the ignition and started up the car.

"Come on, let's get home," she said finally, trying to ignore the fact that Sam was batting her eyes at her in a flirtatious manner. They took off and headed towards Sam's house. The girls sat in silence for five minutes before Sam couldn't take it anymore.

"So, what did he say to you?"

"He asked me if I wanted to go out with him sometime," replied Lara.

"And?"

"I said yes."

"That's it?! Come on, Lara, give me the details." Sam teasingly poked Lara's shoulder. Lara laughed.

"Sam, I'm trying to drive."

"You're not getting off that easy. Spill it."

"What are we? Seventh-graders?"

"Come on, Lara. You have to tell me." At this point, Sam whipped out the puppy-dog eyes.

"Alright, alright...Well, not much happened. He kissed me while we were dancing, and-"

"He kissed you _twice_ tonight?!" squealed Sam. She looked as if she was going to explode. "How did it feel? What did you do?" Lara lightly sighed, still not exactly sure how she felt.

"I don't know, it took me by surprise...I kissed him back, though..." Before she could say anymore, Sam reacted again.

"Awwwww! That's so cute!" Lara smiled in amusement.

"Oh, Sam. What am I going to do with you?" Sam laughed.

"Alright, fine. I'll leave you alone...for now," she said with a mischievous smile. Within two more minutes, they arrived at Sam's.

"I better be the first person that you call when something happens," Sam said while pointing her finger at Lara.

"Okay, okay, I promise." Lara smiled, waved goodbye, and headed home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Lara shot at one target after another. It's been two days since she's seen her friends, yet she had failed to sort out her racing thoughts. Before, Alex was thought to be dead. And now, she was going to start going out on dates with him! She shot another target and missed the center. Lara sighed and holstered her guns. She decided to go inside and try to contact Jake. When she opened her father's address book, she peered closely at Jake's address.

_3752 Bank Street_

After typing the address into a GPS, Lara closed the book and set it aside. She stood and stretched before proceeding to make her departure.

She twisted the cold metal knob and opened the door to the garage. Once inside her car, she started the engine and drove out to the open road. She drove mindlessly, her thoughts blurred out by the humming of the vehicle. She was brought back to complete consciousness now and again with the occasional instruction from the GPS. As she drove on, she noticed the heaviness under her eyelids and recalled that she had a nightmare about Roth's death the night before. She drove for another few minutes before arriving at a small office building, to her surprise.

She slowly stepped out and examined the building. On the aged, but elegant door, her eyes came across an inscription in the glass. Lara bent over and saw a list of the building's hours. She opened the door, happy to know that it was open. Inside, she saw a receptionist alone in the room. The woman looked up when Lara approached her.

"Hi, may I help you?" Her tone wasn't the friendliest. Lara studied her. She had short blond hair and golden hoops that dangled from her ears.

"Yes, I'm looking for a man named Jake Vanport. Is he in today?"

"Yes, Mr. Vanport is back in the managers' office. Down the hall, last door on the left." Lara glanced at where she pointed with her long red fingernail.

"Thank you." _"Typical receptionist,"_ thought Lara humorously as she entered the hallway, letting the clicking and shuffling sounds fade out behind her.

She paced down the hallway and reached the final door, which was closed. She knocked lightly. The door swung open and a man that looked in his late-forties appeared before her eyes. He raised his eyebrows.

"Can I help you, miss?" Lara extended her hand. He took it.

"My name is Lara Croft." The man stopped shaking her hand, as if he suddenly froze. "Are you Mr. Vanport?" finished Lara. She felt his hand slip out of hers.

"Croft?" he said, raising his hand slightly. "Richard's daughter?" Lara nodded.

"Wow. You've grown up...I'm so sorry about your father by the way...Come in." He cleared his throat and opened the door wider for her to enter.

"What can I do for you, Miss Croft? You can call me Jake, by the way." He closed the door, sat down at his desk, and leaned back in his chair. Lara sat in the chair in front of the desk.

"I was reading my father's journals about his past expeditions, and I came across one about the Greek myth of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. He mentioned some sort of riddle that you and him discovered. A riddle that reveals the location of the Labyrinth." Jack shifted forward, sudden interest sparking inside him. "Do you recall it?" finished Lara.

"Why yes, I do. To this day I haven't been able to figure it out."

"Do you still have it?"

"Believe it or not, you came to the right place," He smiled. "It might still be here." He got up, running his fingers through his black hair, which had just a hint of gray hair growing in. The stubbles on his face were the same way. "Follow me." He walked out of the office. Lara followed him halfway down the hallway, and into another one on the right.

Jake stopped at a door near the end of this hallway. He opened it and revealed a warehouse of some type. The room was covered in shelves with cardboard boxes on them. There were men and women walking around with white gloves on, handling the boxes.

"What is this place?" asked Lara.

"It's one of many buildings where artifacts from museums are handled and transported,"answered Jake, as he led her to a small room inside the warehouse. He unlocked a drawer of a file cabinet and began scanning through the folders. He pulled one out and stood up, flipping it open. He set it down on a small table, and handed Lara a piece of paper and a pen.

"You can write it down, if you want," he told her. Lara thanked him and stepped towards the table to take a look at what was in the folder. She saw a small piece of paper that looked slightly aged. She then saw the words on it.

_Seek past the only face of the clock tower, near the lake on a trail through the trees and rocks, at the time of the sunrise, keep counting every k, every first character spells out the key._

Satisfied, Lara bent over and wrote down every word carefully. She stood up straight when she finished.

"Got everything you need?" asked Jake.

"Yes, thank you." Jake nodded and returned the folder to the cabinet. He began walking Lara back to the entrance of the building.

"So, are you going to travel to Greece?"

"Yes, in a few weeks." Lara slipped the riddle in her back pocket.

"I see. Well, have a safe trip," replied Jake, as they reached the main door.

"I will. Thank you for all your help, Mr. Vanport." Lara gave him a polite smile.

"My pleasure. I wish you all the best of luck on deciphering it," he said, returning the smile.

Lara left the building and jumped in her car. When she got home, Winston informed her that she missed a call from Alex. Before calling him back, Lara went to her room to tuck the riddle away safely in a drawer. Once she did that, she returned downstairs and dialed Alex's number. The telephone rang a few times before he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Alex. It's Lara. Sorry that I missed your call earlier."

"It's okay, how are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

"Same here." His voice seemed slightly unsteady. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out to the park or something."

"Okay, sure," Lara said delightfully. She always loved the outdoors.

"Is it alright if I pick you up at 4:00? Lara checked her watch. _2:17._

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Alrighty...Hey, L.C.?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted you to know that I'm really happy I got the chance to see you again."

"Me too, Alex," said Lara, smiling to herself. Alex let out a delightful laugh.

"See you soon?" he said.

"See you soon. Bye, Alex."

"Bye." The phone clicked. Lara hung up and walked upstairs to her room. She pulled the riddle out of her drawer and plopped onto her bed with it. She laid back. _"I just wanted you to know that I'm really happy I got the chance to see you again." _Her heart fluttered when he said it. And she truly felt the same. She didn't know what that meant yet, but she felt it.

Lara snapped out of her daze and sat up to try to interpret the riddle. She looked over the words several times. _"'Seek past the only face of the clock tower'...perhaps refers to a clock tower in Greece? That and 'near the lake' probably refers to a location. 'At the time of sunrise' probably means when..."_ Lara gently set the paper down on her bed, realizing that should would probably have to wait until she goes to Greece to figure out the riddle's meaning. _"Lake..." _That word made her want to go swimming. She put the riddle back in the drawer and snatched her two-piece bathing suit from her wardrobe. She slid it on and went down the the swimming pool, not even bothering to undo her ponytail.

Throwing her towel in a nearby chair, Lara stepped to the edge and poked the water with her toe._ "Cool, but not too cold at all." _She dove in. The water moved swiftly like silk on her skin as she swam forward. The cool air hit her face when she surfaced. She breathed in the scent of the chlorine and swam backwards on her back. The small waves lapped up against her head, massaging it.

She kept swimming until she reached the shallow edge of the pool. She sat against the wall and gazed down into the water. She saw the scar on her stomach, now completely exposed, and stroked it with her fingers. She cupped some water in her hands, and splashed it onto to her face, hoping it would wash her stress away. The stress of coping with the pain she still felt. Her heart sank when Roth slipped into her mind once again. She brought her hands up from the water. She peered at them and thought about the number of people she had to kill to survive. _"Why couldn't I save Roth?" _She still hasn't been able to escape the question. It only raised another question every time she wallowed about it. _"Could his death have been prevented?"_

Lara plunged underwater, deciding not to get herself caught in this loop again. She swam halfway across the pool, and resurfaced. She pushed her wet bangs out of her face and continued to swim.

After a while, Lara glanced at the only clock in the room and realized that Alex would be coming in an hour. She pulled herself out of the pool. She wrapped her towel around her and headed towards the door, leaving a trail of water droplets behind her. Instead of exiting, however, she stopped to dry herself off to avoid making a mess for Winston. Once dried off, she made her way up to her room.

She dropped the towel to the floor and got dressed into a gray shirt and jeans. Afterward, she released her hair from her ponytail. Her skin shuddered as her wet hair hit her neck. She picked up her towel and wrapped her hair in it. Eventually, she let it back down and brushed it out.

Lara checked the clock. _"Five minutes until Alex gets here."_ She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, took one last look in the mirror, then slipped a black jacket on. She slid a white scarf around her neck as she left her room.

Lara stepped out into the chilly air. Shoving her hands into her pocket, she strode over to the large gates and opened them. She closed the gates and stood waiting on the other side. She leaned against a brick post nearby and stroked her scarf, feeling its soft texture with her thumb. In less than a minute more, she heard the humming of a vehicle coming closer. She looked up as a blue car parked near her. Alex get out of the car and shut the door.

"I was hoping I got the right address," he said as he walked towards Lara. He laughed. Lara smiled.

"Luckily, you did." She walked towards him. They stopped when their paths met.

"Wow...you have a huge home, Lara," said Alex in awe, as he stared at the Manor behind Lara. "It's very nice."

"Thank you." Lara's gaze shifted down to Alex's converse shoes, half-covered by his baggy jeans.

"You ready to go, then?" Lara looked back up at Alex and smiled again.

"Yeah." Alex gently took her hand and led her to his car. He opened the door for her. Lara thanked him softly and slipped inside the passenger's seat. Alex closed her door, walked around the car, and sat down behind the wheel. He buckled his seat belt and started the car.

"So how come you never mentioned the fact that you live in mansion?" he asked as he pulled out onto the road. Lara cringed when he asked the question. _"Maybe 'cause I didn't want to seem like a snobby rich person." _Instead of saying this out loud, however, she simply just said "I don't know." Lara hated talking about her wealth. She wanted to be looked at for who she was, instead of how her family name made her appear to most people.

"Well, if you ask me, I think that's pretty cool." Lara smiled, grateful that he hadn't asked about her family's fortune.

"Perhaps I can give you a tour sometime."

"I'd like that." Alex gave her a smile before returning his gaze to the road.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

Lara gently pushed the car door shut and joined Alex on the sidewalk path. The same familiar calm breeze played with her hair.

"I love fall," she said.

"Me too. I think I like summer the most, though...it gives me a chance to show off my body in a bikini." Lara laughed as a smirk spread across Alex's face.

"What? Don't think I can pull off a bikini?" He stopped and struck a girly pose, flipping his head around as if he had long hair. Lara lightly punched him in the arm and kept walking.

"You're so funny, Alex." Alex laughed.

"So why do you like the fall so much?" Lara thought about the question.

"Well, I don't know, really...I supposed I like the atmosphere. It's a time for colorful surroundings and warm fires."

"That's true." For a few moments, only the sounds of their footsteps were emitted.

"So what have you been up to since you got out of the hospital?" Lara finally asked.

"Nothing much really. Just went back to my job at Best Buy."

"You work at Best Buy? How long have you been working there?"

"A couple years. I worked part-time while I was going to a technological school." Lara thought of when Alex mentioned his dream of becoming an electrical engineer back on the Endurance.

"Are you still trying to become an electrical engineer?" Alex sighed and slowed his pace.

"I don't know."

"Why not?" asked Lara with a touch of concern in her voice.

"Well...I took a test before the expedition. It was a test that determined whether I got into an engineering program I was interested in. After taking it, I received a letter saying that my skills and knowledge were inadequate to be a part of the program..."

"What?!" exclaimed Lara. "That's impossible. Everyone says you're a genius at computers." Alex's lips curved into a small smile.

"Thanks," he said. "Well anyway, after that, I kind of lost the motivation to try to apply my skills anywhere, so I just kept working at Best Buy...And eventually Sam informed me that the Endurance crew was looking for an electrical technician. So I went for it." The conversation died down for a minute before Lara spoke.

"Can't you just take the test again?"

"I could, but...I'm just afraid of failure," he admitted. "I just don't want to put a lot of work into it and get nothing out of it again." Lara kicked at some leaves on the path as they walked on.

"I understand what you mean, but I wouldn't give up on it completely. You have potential." Alex smiled.

"Enough about me," he said while stretching his arms. "How about you? What have you been up to?"

"Just been doing some research. Thinking about traveling to Greece."

"What for?"

"I'm going to explore the mystery behind the Minotaur and the Labyrinth," explained Lara.

"Oh, I see. That's neat." Alex sat down at a bench. Lara joined him. They both fell silent.

"I still can't believe what happened...back on Yamatai," said Alex while looking at the ground.

"Yeah..." Lara said quietly.

"At least we made it home." Lara had no idea how thankful he was to be sitting next to her now. He grasped her hand. Lara's hand slipped from his as she stood up.

"Lara?"

"Everybody keeps saying that! 'At least we made it'. None of it would have happened if it weren't for me!" Alex tried to speak, but had no opportunity. "Yes, we made it home," continued Lara, almost shouting. "But god damn it, what about Roth?! And Grim?! I feel so much pain and guilt everyday because of how _my_ decisions affected their lives!" She fell to her knees, with tears streaming down her face. " I don't think I'll ever be able to deal with the fact that I caused their deaths..."

She covered her face and broke out into a quiet cry. Alex hesitated, unsure of what to do. He finally knelt down beside her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Lara," he whispered to her. "You can't put all of that on yourself. It wasn't your responsibility to look after everyone." Lara's body shook underneath him. Alex searched his mind for comforting words. "Honestly, I admired you very much, because of how much you cared for everyone. I know we all felt calm with you around. Y-you were confident and determined, and that always helped everyone around you."

Alex kept holding her until she calmed down. He stood up and helped Lara to her feet, holding both of her hands to pull her up.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, staring at the ground.

"Don't be. It's fine," He said shyly. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you," Lara said as they continued to walk. Lara wiped away her tears. _"I've got to stop falling apart like this."_

"So how are you handling all of this?" she asked Alex. She wanted to know what he was feeling, assuming that he never really had the opportunity to talk about his feelings. Alex thought for a moment.

"For a while in the hospital, I guess I was in shock. The nurse told me I was quiet. I just didn't know how to talk about it at the time...I feel like I'm moving on from it though. Life goes on, you know?" He looked at her and smiled.

"Right." Lara smiled back. She soaked in those words. _"He's right. Life goes on."_

As they walked, Alex suddenly burst out laughing.

"What?" asked Lara with amusement.

"I just thought about how Jonah was singing Katy Perry songs when he was drunk." Lara joined him in his laughter.

"'Think we kissed but I forgot, last Friday night!'" She danced around, imitating Jonah. Alex chuckled and leaned against a tree.

"Oh, the irony. I just hope you didn't forget." Lara stopped.

"Huh? Didn't forget what?" He stepped forward and leaned in close to her.

"This," he said, kissing her lips gently and holding her face in his hands. Lara placed her hands near both sides of his jaw line. The same sensations she felt last Friday rose up inside her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, finding herself wanting to be closer. Alex responded by wrapping his arms around her waist. A minute passed by. _"What am I doing? I can't be doing this." _Lara pulled away and glanced down at the ground before facing Alex. She stared into his eyes, which her equally fixated on her.

"Clever," she said, plastering a smile on her face. Alex chuckled once more, his face growing red.

"Ready to head back?"

"Sure."

**_~Time Lapse~_**

Alex stopped the car. Lara turned and faced him.

"Thank you for inviting me. I don't get out much. Sam yells at me for it." Alex laughed at this statement.

"No problem," he responded.

"Get home safe, alright?"

"I will," promised Alex, as he received a kiss on the cheek from Lara's lips. Lara smiled as she exited the vehicle. Alex dreamily watched her strode over to the gates of the Manor. He started the car and waved to her. Lara waved back as he turned around and drove away.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

"HE DID WHAT?!" Lara held the phone away from her ear to avoid being deafened by Sam's screaming.

"Oh my god! He kissed you again! That's so cute!"

"Yeah..I guess." Lara was positioned on the floor with her hand covering her forehead.

"What's wrong, Lara? Aren't you thrilled?" Sam was always good at detecting Lara's moods.

"Remember that one night in our dorm room I told you that relationships don't really work with me?" Lara said finally.

"Yeah. You said that you didn't think any guy be able to keep up with you when it came to your traveling, but I still don't think that's true. There are plenty of people that like to travel...and Alex, I mean, you can tell that he admires you a lot. He'd do anything for you. I think you should give him a chance, if you like him, that is."

"I mean I do. He's very nice and fun to be around, but...it's not easy for me to become close with anyone anymore." Lara sighed at the frustration of explaining her feelings. "I'm afraid of becoming attached to another person, and then losing them. I just can't go through that again."

"I know, sweetie," replied Sam, knowing that Lara was referring to her parents and Roth. "Just take some time to get past it. It'll all be okay. You'll see, Lara.." She spoke in a tone of encouragement.

"Thanks, Sam, I hope so." Lara rose to her feet.

"Alright, why don't you get some sleep? I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, goodnight, Sam."

"Goodnight."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Lara tapped the "Enter" key. A travel page popped up on the screen. She typed in her destination and starting point.

"Length of time you stay will be," she whispered to herself. _"One week."_ She looked at the modes of transportation and saw that she could go by boat or plane. Lara almost laughed. _"Gonna stay away from boats for a while."_ She thought of that storm. The storm that seemed so alive. She remembered the waves lashing out viciously below her, as if they were trying to snatch her dangling body. She checked the box next to plane and filled out the rest of the information. She hit "Enter" again. Several hotels came up. Lara scanned the results and stopped at the fourth one.

_ Galaxy hotel has wonderful service and offers a great view of the Crete's many monuments (pictured above)._

Lara looked at the pictures above the description. Her eyes widened at the sight of a picture of the clock tower. After clicking on it, a caption appeared under it.

_The Centre Clock tower, the largest clock on the island of Crete._

Lara leaned back in her chair. _"Let's hope that's the right one." _She wrote down the name of the hotel.

_Next Flight Available: October 9__th__, 2013._

"I guess I'm leaving in 6 days," she thought happily to herself as she closed her laptop. She set it aside, and left the couch.

"Winston?" she called as she entered the kitchen, still clutching her travel information in her hand. He appeared around the corner.

"Yes, Lady Croft?"

"Could you organize a flight for me? I have the information here." She held out the piece of paper to him. Winston took it and read over it. He looked at her and smiled.

"Certainly."

"Thank you." She walked out of the kitchen and stopped in the living room. _"What now..." _She ran through a checklist in her head. _"Research, check...training, check...travel arrangements, check..."_ Just then, the telephone rang. Lara snapped out of her thoughts and walked over to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Lara." Lara's heart sank when she heard Alex's voice. Her attempt at avoiding conversation with him had finally become unsuccessful.

"Hey...how are you?"

"I'm good. How are you? It's been a while since we spoke." He let out a light laugh.

"I'm good. And yeah, it has been a while..."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," lied Lara. She covered her forehead with her hand. _"No...I'm not okay."_ "So what's up?" she said finally.

"Not much," replied Alex. "I was just wondering if you'd like to go out again?"

"Um...sure. Sounds like fun."

"Alright, what time should I come by, then?" Lara slumped against the wall. _"Damn it, Lara, you just have to be honest with him."_

"Uh, actually, Alex, there's something I need to tell you..."

"What is it, Lara?" He sounded concerned.

"I like spending time with you and all...It's just that I need some time to myself. I still haven't come to terms with everything that has happened on the island, and I just need some time to sort things out..."

"Oh...I understand," said Alex politely.

"Thank you. I'll call you when I return from Greece, okay?"

"Greece? Going on vacation or something?"

"No. I'm going on an expedition. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah...is Sam going with you?"

"No. Just me."

"You're going alone?"

"Yeah, why?" Lara asked with interest.

"I just think it'd be safer if someone went with you."

"I'll be fine."

"I hope so..." said Alex quietly. A long pause occurred before he spoke again. "Well, I guess I should get going. Good luck, L.C."

"Thanks...bye, Alex."

"Bye." Lara hung up the phone. A feeling of uneasiness came over her. _"He sounded hurt..."_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Days have passed since Lara's unpleasant conversation with Alex. As the day of Lara's departure to Greece drew closer, the young adventurer shuffled around the manor, gathering things for her trip.

Lara carefully slipped her father's journal inside her personal suitcase. She fastened the suitcase shut and shoved it under her bed. She plopped down onto her bed, sitting up against her pillows and crossing her legs. _"Tomorrow's the day." _She looked out the only window in her room and watched flocks of birds drift by in the blue sky. Lara fixed her pillow and laid down on her back, placing her hands on her stomach. She sighed and closed her eyes.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

Lara awoke on her side several hours later. She sleepily sat up and looked at her watch. _"10:43 p.m."_ She got up and strode to the kitchen. She yawned as she opened a cupboard. Pulling out a box of teabags, she heated some water in a cup. As she sat down and stirred her tea, Winston entered the room.

"Good evening, Lady Croft." He positioned himself by a counter and began putting away clean dishes. "Where have you been?"

"I took a nap," responded Lara with a light laugh. Winston smiled.

"Ah, so that's why you're up so late. Don't forget that you have that 8:00 flight to catch."

"Believe me, Winston, I haven't been able to forget it since it was scheduled."

"I'm sure you haven't." The room fell silent.

"Think I'll find it? The labyrinth?" she asked Winston.

"I'd be surprised if you didn't. You are Lord Croft's daughter, after all." Lara smiled at the kind man. She got up and rinsed out her teacup. She wished Winston goodnight as she headed upstairs. She slipped inside of her bathroom to get ready for bed. A few minutes later, Lara finally threw her head back against her pillow.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

"Ready to go, Winston?" hollered Lara as she threw her bags in the trunk of the car.

"Yes, Lady Croft." Winston locked the main doors of the Manor and strode over to the car. Lara climbed into the passenger seat while Winston sat behind the wheel. He started the car and began heading to the airport. The air felt warmer on this day, so Lara rolled her window down a little.

"You sure you'll be okay making your way around Greece by yourself?" asked Winston. "I really wish you'd let me arrange a guide for you, Lady Croft."

"I'll be fine, Winston." responded Lara quietly, suddenly thinking of Alex. It was clear to her that he cared about her safety, and that's something that scared Lara. She sat silently in the car, analyzing her thoughts until they arrived at the airport.

Winston sat down with her at her flight gate, after passing through security. Lara scanned the crowds all around her, examining the diversity of people. Her ears picked up sounds of cell phones ringing, people shuffling around, and little children whining. She always hated such sounds occurring in one place all at the same time. Lara shoved her headphones in and selected a song on her ipod.

Twenty excruciating minutes later, Winston tapped on her shoulder, indicating that her flight has been called. They both rose to their feet.

"Thanks for all of your help with arranging the trip," Lara told Winston, embracing him in a hug.

"My pleasure, Lady Croft." He hugged her and pulled away, holding Lara's shoulders in his hands. "Be careful and good luck." Lara thanked him and turned away to give her ticket to the flight attendant. Before she boarded the plane, she turned to take one last look of her only family before embarking on her next adventure. Winston smiled and waved. Lara waved back, got on the plane, and took a seat in first class, after shoving her bags in the overhead compartment. She looked around, feeling out of place. At least half of the women around her wore fancy travel clothing, a clear indication of their wealth. Lara sat back, comfortable in her cargo pants and bomber jacket. She closed her eyes as the flight took off.

Suddenly, an image appeared in her mind. She vividly saw the helicopter, engulfed in flames, crashing to the ground. She could hear the warning systems going off. She felt the shuddering of the aircraft. She squeezed her eyes shut and grasped the arms of her seat.

"Ma'me, are you alright?" Lara looked around hastily. She glanced at the floor, then the seat in front of her, and finally fixed her gaze on the flight attendant at her side.

"Yeah. I'm fine, thank you." The woman nodded and walked away. Lara closed her eyes once again and took a deep breath, throwing her head back against the seat. After a long day, the plane finally reached Greece.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

"Where shall I take you ma'me?" asked the taxi driver as Lara slid inside the backseat with her luggage.

"Galaxy hotel please," she said breathlessly. She buckled her seat belt as the taxi took off. Buildings blurred past the window. Lara stared in awe at the beautiful terrain, decorated with glowing lights. _"Father must have loved it here," _thought Lara, knowing very well that her father loved different environments and cultures. She opened her father's journal. _"I wonder how far Father got with the riddle." _

"Here we are, miss." Lara snapped out of her thoughts. She quickly got out of the vehicle, taking her luggage with her. She thanked the driver and handed him money. The taxi sped away as Lara stepped up in front of the doors of the Galaxy Hotel. Without further hesitation, she went inside and checked into her room.

Tossing all of her belongings in a corner, Lara fell back onto the double bed. She stared at the ceiling for a moment of rest, then got back up to prepare for bed. After brushing her teeth and changing into her nightwear, she slipped under the covers with a brochure in hand. She flipped it open and immediately saw the clock tower, the same one she saw on the internet. She got back out of bed and strode over to the window. She opened the curtains. There it stood, the tall tower, with a clock so ancient looking, yet so divine. _"There must be some history behind it..." _After a satisfying enough view, Lara returned to bed and drifted off to sleep.

**_~Time Lapse~_**

Lara snapped her pack shut and slung it around her shoulder. She took her brochure from the nightstand as she shuffled out of the room. The heat she wasn't used to immediately beat down on her skin as she stepped outside. _"It's good to feel the sun for a change,"_ she contradicted in her mind, thinking of the currently cooler weather back home.

She marched across the street, dressed in brown shorts, and a black tank top. She looked up at the clock tower. _"Seek past the only face of the clock tower...hmm," _thought Lara as she circled the huge structure. Sure enough the tower only had one clock. Lara peered past the clock, opening the piece of paper that contained the riddle. _"Near the lake on a trail through the trees and rocks," _Lara flipped open her father's journal. She scrutinized every detail about the riddle inside of it as she paced back and forth. She quickly came across an entry that caught her eye.

_Jake and I found an old cattle trail in Greece, rumored to be haunted. We decided that the entrance can very well be hidden on it, so we went to take a look. Unfortunately, we've had no luck finding it. We are beginning to suspect that the entrance is somewhere else._

Lara closed the journal. _"Okay, so probably not the old cattle trail," _she thought as she paced away from the tower. She entered a nearby small cafe to sit down and think. The sound of clanging dishes came from the kitchen in the back. Lara relaxed her body in a chair, yet racked her brain for an answer as to where the labyrinth could possibly be. After a moment, she decided to peek insider her brochure. She searched the section on tourist attractions.

Her eyes stopped at a paragraph labeled "Samaria Gorge." To her direct interest, the paragraph described a trail through the gorge. She closed the brochure and smiled. _"Right, let's get to that gorge."_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"One adult ticket, please." _"I hope he understands me..."_ Luckily, the man at the shaded desk held out a ticket.

"That'll be $6.87." Lara raised her eyebrows, slightly surprised that he spoke English. She then took the ticket as she handed over her money. The young man, probably in his mid-twenties, took it.

"Got a number to go with that, sweetheart?" he asked, as he tucked away the money in the cash register. A smile stretched across his tan face, as he gave her change. Lara put her finger on her chin as if she were thinking.

"Um, actually I don't, but I'm sure a player like yourself has plenty of numbers to go around." That being said, Lara turned away, whipping her ponytail behind her, leaving the man stunned. _"Typical personality of the male species."_ She looked down at her change. _"Damn, they shouldn't charge so much for walking on a bloody trail." _She headed toward the entrance and set off on the trail.

Loose pebbles in the dirt shuffled under her feet as she walked. She thought ahead for what she was looking out for. _"near the lake on a trail through the trees and rocks..." _She watched all around her as she traveled. She walked for nearly two miles through shady wood-like parts and rocky areas. She took her time, allowing a few hikers pass her here and there.

As she neared two miles, she turned another corner on the trail. Her heart immediately sprang when the sound of rushing water reached her ears. She looked ahead and sure enough, she spotted a waterfall flowing into a pool down the hill from the trail. Full of hope, she began climbing down the steep hill, deserting the trail. Once she carefully reached the bottom, she walked a few yards over to the water and examined the area. The trees shaded the place nicely, and the waterfall sprayed a mist onto the small cliff it flowed over.

Lara paced around the pool of water, looking for any sign of an entrance. _"Nothing seems out of the ordinary here..."_ She sat down by the pool, throwing her bag down next to her, and looked back up at the trail. _"Could it be further down the trail?"_ She stood back up. _"What if father had simply missed it on that other trail?"_ She paced around in frustration, lightly kicking at the dirt below her. She finally picked up her bag and headed back to the hill, but stopped before she reached it. _"There's got to be something I'm missing..." _she thought, turning back to view the waterfall. She approached it again. _"If the labyrinth hasn't been found yet, then the entrance must be well hidden."_ She began patting along the cliff face next to the pool. After a few steps, she paused her actions, then turned around and leaned back against the cliff. _"Or maybe it doesn't exist at all..."_

Lara refused to believe this, however, and went back to examining the cliff face. She scooted along it, moving closer and closer to the waterfall. As she began to feel water dripping on her hot skin, something along the way finally grabbed her interest. She noticed a small gap in the wall, peeked through it and saw that the inside was hollow.

Lara hastily squatted down to withdraw her climbing axe from her pack. Heart pumping with excitement, she wedged the axe in the gap. She turned her head to ensure that no one was watching, then firmly gripped the handle before pulling it towards her. A small boulder shifted outwards without too much difficulty, creating a big enough opening for Lara to pass through. Axe still in hand, Lara stepped inside. Realizing how dark it was, she decided to exchange the axe for a torch.

Once she lit it, the inside of the space became clear. The space was small and seemed empty. Lara looked around with anticipation, hoping to find something more. She caught some hanging algae in the corner of her eye. Once she got a closer look, she discovered that it partially covered another opening. She brushed the algae aside and held her torch in front of her. I downward path was revealed to her. She drew in a deep breath and exhaled before starting down the path.

The path was straight and steady for the most part. Lara felt her lung capacity tighten as she walked down. Despite this, she made her way to the end of it with ease. The glow of her torch uncovered a strange door from the darkness. Even though the room was quite spacious, the door was a little shorter than Lara's height and had three mechanisms on it. Lara crouched down to get a closer look at them.

The first mechanism consisted of a dial that had various shapes all around it: a triangle, circle, square, and a moon. _"That's odd," _thought Lara. _"The moon doesn't fit in with the other basic shapes."_ She placed her hand on the dial, and spun it so that the moon was selected. Nothing happened. _"I wonder if that's the right one..."_ She moved on to the next mechanism, another dial, which had the numbers 0-99 on it. Lara pulled the riddle from her pack and read it over. She soon figured out a possible answer. _"Keep counting every k."_ She counted six k's in the riddle and turned the dial to "06". The dial shifted, causing Lara to instinctively jerk her hand away as it seemed to lock into place. _"The first one didn't do that..." _At that moment, her cell phone went off. Lara quickly searched her bag for it as it made a loud echo through the tunnel.

"Hello?" she said once she had found and answered it.

"Hey, L.C."

"Hey, Alex. How are you?" she asked calmly, although surprised. _"And how on Earth am I getting service down here?" _she asked herself humorously.

"I'm good," she heard Alex say. "How about you? I was calling to see how the expedition was going."

"It's going great," she replied happily. "I think I've just found the entrance to the labyrinth."

"Already?! Geez, you're quick, Croft," he said with a slight laugh.

"Yeah, I'm so excited. Trying to figure out how to open it though. It has some sort of combination," she said, staring at the three mechanisms.

"I see...so where did you find it?"

"In the Samaria Gorge, along the trail."

"Wow. Doesn't sound too sacred," Alex replied. Lara laughed a little.

"It wasn't obvious, but it certainly wasn't a challenge to find," she said, agreeing with Alex.

"Well, I better let you get back to what you're doing. Glad to hear that you've found it." Lara frowned. He didn't sound the slightest bit happy to her.

"Alright, Alex. Have a nice night." She hung up and pocketed her phone, shaking her head. _"What's wrong with him?" _The question soon escaped her thoughts when she looked back at the three mechanisms. _"I guess the moon isn't right." _She spun the first dial several times, trying each of the shapes. The dial shifted and locked as soon as she spun it to the circle. Lara glanced down at the riddle, in search for an explanation. _"At the time of sunrise...the circle must represent the sun!" _She finally moved on to the third mechanism. It had 5 slots, each with a letter engraved into it. Together the letters spelled "level". Each slot seemed to have their own small dial next to them. Lara turned the first dial. It turned to "K", the next letter. She moved her hand away in deep thought as she studied the riddle. The only part of it left was _"every first character spells out the key."_ _"The key..." _Lara thought, looking back up at the slots. _"Five spaces, but only three letters."_ She went back to the riddle, thinking of five-letter words that could work. _"Greek is five letters..."_ She spelled out "Greek" across the slots. Nothing happened. She stood up, checking her watch and wiping the tunnel's moisture from her forehead. Feeling fatigued, she decided to go back outside for fresh air.

As she stepped out into the light, the mist of the waterfall greeted her, as well as a lungful of air. She crouched down by the pool to splash water onto her face. A steady breeze flowed through her hair. Lara looked up at the sky, noticing the slight temperature difference. Nighttime would be on its way in a little while.

Lara stood up and began collecting sticks, deciding to move away from the trail to make camp, instead of paying to walk the trail again the next day. She walked for a few minutes away from the trail and stopped once she was clear out of sight. She threw her collection of firewood to the ground and took out a box of matches. As the sky began to darken, Lara lit a fire and wrapped a jacket around herself. She laid back and rested her head on her pack, thinking about nothing besides what could really be behind that door. The mystery of the Labyrinth was one of the very things that destroyed her father's reputation; made him appear as a madman. And tomorrow, Lara would be sure to redeem him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Lara groggily sat up after a nearly sleepless night. She glanced over to the fire. Hot coals and ashes were all that were left, along with a little smoke. Lara stamped out the remains of the fire, gathered her things and headed back to the waterfall.

Before entering the tunnel, she decided to think about the final answer outside, where she could breathe. She positioned herself outside the entrance, made herself comfortable, then stared down at the last phrase of the riddle, looking for meaning in every word. _"Every first character spells...spells..."_ The brunette hung onto that word. _"Letters spell words, so character must mean letter."_ She looked closely at each phrase of the riddle. _"Seek past the only face of the clock tower. Starts with an S. Near the lake on a trail through the trees and rocks. N. At the time of the sunrise. A. Keep counting every k. K. Every first character spells out the key. E." _Lara set the riddle down and put the letters together in her mind. _"S-N-A-K-E. Snake...Could that be the answer?"_ She immediately jumped to her feet and ducked into the opening of the cliff face.

Before continuing down the tunnel, she dug her dual pistols out of her pack and strapped them to her waist. She wasted no time lighting a torch and entering the tunnel. When she reached the door, she carefully wedged her torch into the wall and crouched down.

She brushed her fingers along the final piece of the mechanism. _"Every first character spells out the key..."_

"Lara!" She zipped around and trained her pistols on the voice behind her. Her eyes widened.

"Hey, whoa, it's just me." A man stood before her, his arms slightly raised. The torch gave off just enough light for Lara to see that it was Alex. She let out a sharp sigh and holstered her weapons. _"What the hell is he doing here?"_

"How long have you been here?" she demanded, with a touch of anger in her voice.

"I just got here last night. I-"

"Why are you here?" Alex looked away.

"I couldn't...couldn't let you..." He sighed. "I can't bear the thought of you going in there alone, once you figured it out."

"I told you, I'll be fine."

"I can't let you go alone." Pain struck her soul when she heard the words she didn't want to hear.

"Don't follow me anymore! Go home!"

"Lara, I-"

"Go!" She refused to hear anymore. _"I can't let anyone risk their lives for me anymore!"_ She screamed the unspoken words in her mind.

"I came here to help you!" said Alex, raising his voice a little. "Please, Lara, let me help." Lara sighed.

"Look, I appreciate it, but I can handle myself, Alex." Alex stepped towards her.

"I know you can, but I'd feel better if I went with y-"

"Alex, just go!" interrupted Lara sternly, looking away. She couldn't face the pain in his eyes. "Please..." she begged quietly. _"I don't need a hero."_

"I'm sorry, Lara...be careful." Lara listened to his footsteps fade behind her. Once it was silent again, Lara peered behind her to ensure that Alex had left. She felt guilt rise up inside of her, but shoved it back down and turned back to focus on the task at hand. She entered her answer in the slots.

Suddenly, the whole door began shaking and sliding into the floor, leaving another opening into another dark tunnel. Lara grabbed her torch and drew one of her pistols as she moved into the next passage. This passage sloped slightly upward. As she kept moving, she started seeing a light ahead of her. She crept towards it anxiously. _"I guess father never found the entrance. He would have figured it out in two seconds." _She extinguished her torch and holstered her weapon as she reached the opening.

The sunlight nearly blinded Lara as she finally stepped out into the open air. Shielding the sun with her hand, she looked ahead. Concrete walls creating three paths lied before her. She hastily glanced around, happily concluding that she had found the labyrinth. She examined the blue sky above her. _"Where the hell am I?"_ She wondered in bewilderment how on Earth no one has found this place. She lowered her head back down to face the paths before her.

She took a deep breath and strode forward, deciding to try the middle path. The path quickly ended with a path both to the left and the right of her. Lost in amazement, she took the left path, not caring about where it led. She went around a few twists and turns, exploring its environment. She halted after a couple of minutes and stared all around her with joy in her heart. A feeling of uneasiness quickly replaced the joy she felt.

She turned to look back the way she came, feeling the earth tremble slightly below her. The ground she had just walked on had cracks quickly spreading across it. Loose pieces of earth began to break apart and fall into a deep abyss. Lara turned and ran before the ground beneath her could give way. It didn't take long for the crumbling earth to catch up to her. Her legs pumped faster and faster as the growing abyss tried to take her life. She hung a quick right and the cracks followed her. As she kept running, she realized that the pathway ahead began falling apart and moving in her direction. Lara had no choice but to keep running towards it.

As her space to run shrank from both directions, Lara caught another path to the right in the corner of her eye. Just as both of the breaking paths met, Lara leaped for the path to the right. She landed safely, almost losing her balance. She looked back, collapsing against a wall. The ground behind her had completely disappeared, leaving a black pit.

Lara took a moment to catch her breath, then continued down the current path. _"What was that?"_ Immediately after wondering this, Lara found herself on the ground. She looked behind her to see a root sticking up out of the ground. Lara sighed and slowly scrambled back to her feet. The instant she took another step forward, another root shot out of the ground and grabbed her foot, causing Lara to spin around and tumble on her back. Before she could get up this time, another root wrapped around her foot and pulled. Lara shook her foot, trying to break free, but it was no use. The root effortlessly dragged the shocked archaeologist through the labyrinth.

Lara eventually equipped her axe from her belt and plunged it into the ground, not wanting to find out where the root would take her. As she held onto the axe, she felt her limbs stressing from the root's struggle to keep pulling her. Lara slowly reached toward her pistol, attempting to ignore the tearing pain in her other arm. She finally reached the gun and shot at the root several times. It released right away and shriveled like a welting flower.

Lara wasted no time to get back on her feet. She dashed forward and desperately sprinted through the twists and the turns of the maze, ignoring the stinging cuts on her elbows. After a while she slowed to a stop to analyze her situation. _"This place seems so alive..."_ Her mind shifted to the thought of the root that latched onto her foot. _"This place is alive," _she concluded. _"And I have to get out of here."_ And with that, she set off again, not daring to look back. _"Just keep moving."_

However, it wasn't long before Lara stopped at an intersection, squinting at something up ahead. As what seemed like a cloud of black dust drifted closer, her ears picked up a buzzing sound. _"That can't be good..." _She took a different path and kept her pace. The buzzing sound grew louder. Lara squeezed her eyes shut, resisting the urge to glance behind her. She suddenly felt a pinch in her neck. She grasped the spot with her hand and cried out as she struggled to keep running. She finally whipped her head around and came into contact with a swarm of over-sized locusts. One buzzed up against her arm and sunk its jaws into Lara's flesh. The same pain she had felt in her neck appeared in her arm. She pushed herself onward, obtaining a few more bites before the swarm finally diminished. Or so Lara thought. The buzzing sound returned to her ears just as she hit a dead end. She clawed at the concrete wall in disbelief as she turned her head to face the approaching swarm. _"No. No. No. No. This can't be happening!"_ She glanced back at the wall, searching for any way out. _"Come on. Think!"_ She tightened her grip around her climbing axe. An idea suddenly came to mind.

She quickly swung her axe into a small gap in between the concrete slabs of the wall, and pulled herself up off the ground. She climbed up and over, landing on her feet on the other side. She stood up straight and took off again.

Although the threat of the locusts were no longer a concern of Lara's, another obstacle arose. The concrete walls of the labyrinth began collapsing behind Lara, causing her to stumble uncontrollably as she ran. The path of destruction soon caught up, hurling large pieces of concrete down at Lara. She shifted left and right, dodging the portions of the walls raining down.

Despite her efforts, the ground shook horribly. Unable to support the ongoing avalanche, the earth beneath Lara gave way. Lara used the last of the strength in her knees to jump for the unbroken path in front of her. She caught the edge with both hands. Before she could pull herself up, the path ahead of her cracked and broke apart, casting her into the dark pit below.

Instead of falling to her death, however, Lara found herself sliding down a slope. She stumbled, struggling to slow down. Small beams of light flashed past her as she went down. The slope finally cast her in a pitch black hole.

Lara landed with a splash, discovering a small stream of water flowing slowly beneath her.


	10. Author's Note

Hey everyone, I just wanted to announce that I've just noticed that my stars representing time lapses haven't appeared when I posted my chapters, so I went back and wrote in "time lapse" where necessary. Sorry if you noticed some little gaps here and there in the story. Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll have my next chapter out tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Lara forced herself to stand up. She breathed heavily and shivered as water dripped from her wet clothes. _"Oh god, where am I now?"_ The cave erupted with light from Lara's torch. She observed water dripping all around her from stalactites hanging from the ceiling. _"Looks like some sort of cavern."_ She strode forward and discovered a narrow passage. The wet rock walls glistened in the glow of Lara's torch. _"How was the labyrinth able to come after me like that? Is this how the king really killed the poor souls that were forced here?" _

Partway through her stroll, Lara came across a body. She jumped back, startled by it. Holding her torch above the skeleton, she examined it and groaned in disgust when she saw that an arm was missing. _"This is like being back on Yamatai,"_ she thought grimly. _"Only, you probably weren't killed by humans."_ She gazed at the empty space where the missing arm should have been. _"The minotaur must have gotten to you." _She glanced back at the way she came, fear rising up inside of her. _"That is, if the minotaur did indeed exist."_ She turned back and pressed on.

The passage led her into a room that looked like a study. She stepped on a huge metal plate that was the size of the opening of the passage behind her. A small desk served as the only furniture in the small room, besides the bookshelf stationed against one wall. On top of it sat a pedestalholding a glowing green object. _"It looks like an emerald,"_ thought Lara as she got a closer look. Several pieces of paper lied scattered on the desk as well. The first thing she saw was a map, which she pocketed. She peered at the other papers.

"Letters..." she said out loud, picking one up. Though she couldn't speak Greek fluently, Lara was decent when it came to reading the language. "A letter to the king!" she exclaimed under her breath.

_Aetes, _

_ I believe I have fulfilled your request for the labyrinth. I've come across a green gem that is suitable to your needs. It is a great source of power and will bring the labyrinth to life. It will create various obstacles for the Athenians, just like you wanted. As for the lair, if any of them happen to reach it, we'll have wolves waiting for them. I hope what I have organized meets your satisfaction._

_Your advisor, Apostolos _

Lara read the other letters on the desk. _"So there never was a minotaur. It was a concept used to deceive the people of Crete. So that no one would go after the gem." _She looked back into the passage.

"So the cause of that person's death must have been the wolves. And this," she said, turning back to the gem. "This is the secret of the labyrinth. This is the power behind it. What made it come after me."

"Indeed, it is, Lara." Lara turned to see who stood behind her, but only saw darkness.

Lara opened her eyes. The dirt floor of the room came into focus as the back of her head thumped with pain. She tried to stand up, but two pairs of arms forced her to stay on her knees.

"Sorry about that, Lara. We didn't want to take you by surprise." Lara faced the man who spoke.

"Jake?"

"Ah, you remember my name," responded Jake, who grinned with pride.

"What are you doing here?" Lara asked wearily.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jake took large strides back and forth, with his hands behind his back. Lara saw the green gem in his hands. "I've followed you down here to find out the mystery of the labyrinth. And now I have it." He swung his arms out in front of him and showed Lara the gem. Her face grew hot with anger.

"And what are YOU going to do with that?" Jake let out a small laugh.

"I considered selling it-"

"Are you kidding me? If that gets into the wrong hands-"

"You didn't let me finish." he said, showing signs of slight aggravation, "I considered selling it, but I think I'll use it to get what I really want." he said, with an evil grin. Hatred sparked in Lara's eyes.

"What is it that you want, Jake?" she said, staring into his eyes with contempt.

"I'm going to threatened the president of the United States and take control of the country and their military. Then I will spread my new empire." _"It seems that it has already fallen into the wrong hands," _Lara thought to herself. She paused before speaking.

"Man, you are one crazy son of a gun for believing you can accomplish that." Jake walked over to her and hit her across the face, making it clear that she made his temper rise. Lara groaned in pain.

"Dispose of her!" he ordered his men. "I'll be waiting outside." he added as he began to walk out through a different passage that Lara had neglected to notice before.

"Why are you doing this?" Lara weakly asked.

"Alright Croft," Jake said as he turned around to face her. "I'll let you in on a little secret. Once upon a time, you see, a Richard Croft and Jake Vanport worked side-by-side, discovering many leads to archaeological secrets. You were just a girl. While Croft was too weak the actually put some good use to these artifacts, I proved otherwise." Lara glared at him.

Despite her threatening eyes, Jake carried on, pacing slowly around the room. "I knew of innovative ways to utilize the true power of such relics. Richard could have been a part of this revolution. He had the same opportunity that I was given by this sect that approached me." He paused, staring at the gem in his hands. "However, he just got in the way. The selfish old man wanted to plant the artifacts in museums and claim the fame. Not only that, but he spent too much time going through research with that girl of his...Ana I think...In the end, the foolish Croft suffered a terrible fate." A grin spread across his face as he watched Lara react.

"I believe you know what it had come to." he said. "Richard couldn't take the comments from the media anymore. It was only a matter of time! With the help of his research since then, and, of course, your efforts, I was able to finally track this gem down!"

Lara's jaw clenched up tightly, as well as her muscles. She attempted to lunge for him, fighting the two men who were holding her back. Jake began to walk away.

"You son of a bitch! How could you do that?!" she screamed at the monstrous man, trying to hurt him with her words if not her fists. "How dare you call my father selfish! You're the selfish one!" She shook her arms around violently, trying to break free. "Come back here! Come back here and fight me you monster! I'll kill you!" Sweat dripped down her red face. Jake turned to face her one last time.

"Lara, someday you'll realize that there's a monster in all of us. Or maybe you won't." He gave his men a final nod and left the room. After a couple of seconds the men released the exhausted brunette, shoving her to her knees.

One man pointed his gun at Lara, preparing to carry out the job. As his index finger squeezed the trigger, Lara suddenly shoved the gun out of the way. She quickly elbowed his face, took the weapon, and finished him off with it. As she turned around, the other man pushed her to the ground. The gun slipped out of her hand, and clattered on the floor as she fell. Lara felt his fingers close around her throat. She grabbed his hands with her own, struggling to free her throat, feeling the oxygen being cut off as the man tightened his grip. She reached for the gun, but her head became too heavy. She could feel the life draining out of her.

Lara closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come. To her surprise though, she could taste the musty air again. She coughed violently and sat up slowly. She saw the man lying dead next to her, with blood pouring out of his head.

"Lose something?" Lara looked in front of her to see her climbing ax and that Alex was crouched down in front of her, holding it.

"Alex!" she said with difficulty as she sprang into his arms. She pulled away still out of breath. "You're crazy for coming here."

"You're crazy for thinking that I wouldn't," he said, holding her shoulders in his hands. Lara's eyes darted beyond Alex.

"Jake..." she whispered as she got up and sped past Alex. He quickly rose to his feet and hastily followed Lara. Lara quickly climbed up through the passage and found herself back in the labyrinth. She caught up to where Jake was and ran full speed at him. Jake swiftly turned around, swiping his hand in the air. Lara felt a paralyzing electrical shock before being thrown back the other way. She landed on her stomach with a thud, groaning in pain. Jake looked at his hand.

"The power of force! How cool is that?" He walked over to Lara, stopping inches from where she lied. He looked at her stiff body. "I'm glad to see the inner monster coming out of you." Blood dripped from Lara's now broken nose. She slowly reached out and grabbed Jake's ankle, gripping it tightly.

"You will pay for what you've done," she growled through gritted teeth. Jake laughed as he shook her hand off of his ankle.

"What are you gonna do? Cut off my circulation? Foolish girl." He turned his back on her and suddenly found himself on the ground after being tackled. He scrambled onto his back to see another man on top of him.

"Don't you ever talk to her like that!" Alex boldly said as he angrily punched Jake across the face. Before he could land another punch, Jake disappeared from his grasp.

"That was quite the punch," he said behind Alex, rubbing his cheek. His gaze returned to Lara. "Do you see the things anger can make you do, Lara? You can't blame me for doing what I did." Lara took a breath and tried lifting herself from the ground. Alex quickly came to her aid.

"Don't you dare try to justify stealing from my father's research," she growled at him, once on her feet. Jake laughed once more.

"Oh, you're just as persistent as your father was. Unfortunately though, you're luck has run out." Lara's glare strengthened. Jake disappeared and reappeared behind the two. "You can't beat me, Lara." He gripped the green gem. "And I can't leave any witnesses. So, I think we both know what the outcome of this is going to be."

Lara stared for a couple seconds longer, before lowering her head to the ground. A smirk spread across his face, as he raised his hand, readily charging up force.

"Lara?" said Alex. Lara didn't move. "Lara, come on!" He grabbed her arm. Lara shook him off, drew her pistols and showered bullets at Jake.

"Damn it!" Lara shouted out in frustration, seeing that Jake disappeared again. She hastily looked around until her eyes found her target. She gasped at the sight before her. Jake pointed his charged hand at Alex's head, threatening to bash him with it. The green currents flickered against Alex's face. Alex was grasping his arm and grimacing in pain.

"Drop your weapons." Jake ordered. Once Lara threw down her pistols, Jake threw Alex towards her. She helped him stay on his feet.

"What happened?" she asked him, not taking her eyes off Jake.

"He has a knife," responded Alex in between shaky breaths. Jake began charging his hand up again. Lara loosened her grip on Alex's shoulder and stood up straight, despite the feeling of doom coming over her. She felt her forearm brush against something on her belt.

"Goodbye, Lara Croft." said Jake as he released the ball of electricity. At the same time, Lara pulled a grenade off of her belt, removed the ring with her teeth, and launched it straight at the force ball that left Jake's hand mere seconds ago. Lara and Alex turned away as the explosion rang out.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Lara coughed as the dust settled. She scrambled to her feet and examined her surroundings. The first thing she saw was Alex lying unconscious nearby. Her heart sank. She crouched down next to him and shook him.

"Alex?" She checked his pulse. _"He's still breathing,"_

"What have you done?" A voice said, interrupting her thoughts. She shifted her head and saw Jake crouched down near a concrete wall, holding shattered pieces of the gem. He stood up.

"You've destroyed it!" he shouted at her. Drawing a knife from his sleeve, he quickly strode towards Lara.

Lara stood up and backed away, patting her waist in a desperate search for a weapon, but found nothing. Her eyes darted to Alex. She immediately noticed her red climbing axe attached to his belt. She quickly unclipped it as Jake neared her. He thrust the knife down towards her collarbone. Lara caught his wrist with one hand, and swung her other arm, plunging the axe into his chest. Lara fell to the ground as Jake stumbled backwards and hit the ground as well.

Lara jumped back up to her feet to observe what she had done. Blood poured out of Jake's chest. Lara crouched down next to him as he groaned with sorrow in his eyes, gurgling blood in his mouth. She wanted to say so many things at that moment. But this was all she said:

"You're right. I am like my father." She wrapped her fingers around the handle of the axe. "And I consider that a hell of a lot better than being like you," she declared darkly. Without further hesitation, she ripped the weapon from his body and watched him breathe for the last time.

After a few seconds she got up to check on Alex. Blood stained his right forearm. Lara dug inside of her pack for the medical supplies she brought. After cleansing the wound, she carefully wrapped a bandage around it. She then walked over to the concrete wall and began picking up pieces of the destroyed artifact, carefully tucking them inside her pack.

Afterward, she plopped back down next to Alex. The things Jake had said about her father invaded her mind. Lara grabbed her father's journal from her pack and tore it open, desperate to find answers. She found what she was looking for in the last two entries, dated back over 15 years ago.

_Just returned from trip to the ceremony I attended a week ago, honoring the new discovery Jake and I had made. Unfortunately, Jake had gotten tangled up in some mercenary organization, and it seems that he's been leaking my research to them. We got into a huge fight afterward and it ended with Jake leaving the partnership. Though he is now making every attempt to tarnish my family name, I will not give in. I'm so glad that Ana is here to support me through this tough time._

Lara closed the journal when she was done reading. _"But you did give up..." _Lara will never forget the tragic day that she lost her father. _"He seemed so determined...it just doesn't make sense now...him taking his own life."_

"Ughhh," she heard behind her. She turned her head to see Alex trying to get up. She quickly walked over to him. "What happened?" he asked as Lara helped him up. "The impact killed Jake," lied Lara, deciding that the truth was too personal to talk about at the moment. "And as for the gem..." She pulled out a couple fragments of it and showed him. "It's better this way. It won't be a danger to humanity."

"Well, that's good," responded Alex. He looked down at his arm. Lara followed his gaze and gawked at the sight before her eyes. The wound had bled through the bandage and the blood dripped down his arm. She quickly grabbed his hand and wrapped a second layer of bandages around his wound.

"Let's get you to a hospital." She placed her hand on his back and guided him forward. Using the map Lara obtained in the room, the two of them made their way out of the Labyrinth with ease, especially since the power of the labyrinth was broken.

They walked in silence, only saying a word here and there. Lara especially remained quiet, feeling sick to her stomach. _"How the hell do I get caught up in these situations..."_ She paced quickly, trying to hurry, hoping that Alex wouldn't bleed out.

Within an hour, Lara and Alex reached the hospital. Lara sat in the ER's waiting room, while Alex received treatment for his arm. Lara leaned forward, locking her hands together and pressing them against her forehead. _"Damn it, Alex, why did you follow me? You could have died."_ The thought of experiencing his death again made Lara uneasy.

"Hey," said Alex, while sitting beside her. "You okay?" Lara looked up.

"Did they stop the bleeding?" she asked immediately, ignoring his question.

"Yes," he answered, glancing down at his arm. "The wound is fine. I'm just waiting on the paperwork for the bill." Lara stared sadly at the ground, ashamed that she ended up costing him money after everything that has happened. "Maybe you should get checked out," suggested Alex, while looking at the gash on her forehead.

"There's no need. I'm fine." She kept her gaze on the ground.

"What's wrong, Lara?" Lara remained silent, unsure of what to say. "Lara, please talk to me," Alex begged. Lara sighed.

"I guess I'm a little upset that you followed me through the Labyrinth. I mean I appreciate you're help, but I can't handle you risking your life for me." Alex leaned back and stared straight ahead.

"I didn't follow you into the Labyrinth," he said finally. Lara quirked an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Alex looked at her.

"When I went back up the hill, back when you insisted that I leave, I noticed some guys waiting around at the top. I went past them and when I looked back, I saw them climbing down the hill. I went back to where they were waiting and saw them follow you inside the entrance. So I went after them." He looked down. "I was concerned. But I'm sorry for following you when you didn't want me too."

"Don't apologize for saving my life," responded Lara as she shook her head. "I was just worried about losing another person I cared about."

"I was afraid of losing you." Alex quietly said while looking at the ground. "I would have never forgiven myself if-" Before he could finish, Lara turned his face towards hers and smashed their lips together. Lara pulled away and stared into his eyes.

"Thanks for all your help." Alex smiled.

"My pleasure." Lara sat back against her chair and stared at the floor. _"Why did I do that?" _Her ears zoned in on every pair of feet that neared them. Alex waited patiently next to her. Finally, a nurse came by with the paperwork. Though Lara offered to help with the cost, Alex declined. Lara had ensured Alex that she'd see him back home, once they both got situated again. After an awkward goodbye, Lara found herself packing up her things at the hotel, her mind still racing about the recent events that have just occurred. It seemed as though she has found more questions than answers.

_**One week later**_

"Lady Croft?" Lara matched her gaze to the sound of Winston knocking on the threshold of the door. "You missed another call from Sam. Perhaps you should call her back," he finished.

"Alright," responded Lara, as she peered at the mess of notes on the desk in front of her. "I'll call her in a little bit. Thank you, Winston." Winston merely brushed her dismissal away and sat in an armchair near her.

"Lara." She looked up at her butler's serious face. Winston hardly ever called her by her first name. "I'm very much aware that you want to turn your father's reputation around." He paused. "But you know that isn't what your life is about," he said calmly. Lara broke eye-contact with him and stared at the ground. Winston continued speaking. "I never forgot what you said on the day you left for Yamatai. Remember what you said when I asked you why you were so eager to leave so early after graduation?" Lara thought back to that moment.

"I..." she said slowly. "I said I wanted to create a name for myself. I didn't want to be known just as the daughter of the Crofts." Winston nodded, rose to his feet, and began to walk out of the room. He tapped her shoulder softly as he walked past her.

"Don't spend your life cleaning up his past. Lead your own life." Once alone, Lara sat motionless, absorbing Winston's advice. She covered her face in her hands and sighed. A few moments later, Winston reappeared in the room.

"You have a visitor, Lady Croft." he explained. Lara nodded and slowly lifted herself to her feet, ready to finally face Sam after hiding for a while. She climbed down the stairs and headed for the main entrance. Much to her surprise, however, Sam wasn't the one waiting.

"Alex..." she said as she approached him.

"Hi, Lara," he said quietly, standing in a timid manner. He held out a small bouquet of flowers. "I got these for you."

"Oh, thank you," said Lara gently as she accepted them. "Come on in. Sit down. I'll be right back." She disappeared in the kitchen and put a vase under the faucet. She ran the water and observed the flowers she received, as the water rose in the vase. Blue, purple, and white flowers all blended together to make a beautiful composition. The thought of spring floated to her mind.

She imagined the warm sun on her skin, the smell of pollination in the air, and finally the green vegetation in the woods. Then, she began to think of the park, and how it changes throughout the seasons. Beams of light shine through the trees in the summer. Leaves blow around on the trails in the fall. Snow covers the ground and wraps a white coat around every tree in the winter. Lara's mind at last drifted back to spring. Rain or sun, the woods were always Lara's favorite place in the spring. In fact, the forest was her favorite place to be during any season. She thought of the last time she walked on the trails she loved.

Suddenly, Alex came to mind. Lara instantly snapped out of her thoughts and noticed that the vase was overflowing with water. She turned off the water, dropped the flowers in, and left it on the counter. She rushed out of the kitchen to accompany Alex. Alex had seated himself on a couch by the fire in the living room.

"Sorry about that," she told him as she sat next to him.

"No problem." Alex sat up. "So how have you been?" he asked politely.

"I've been good," she vaguely answered. "How about you." She met his eyes. Alex scratched the stubbles on his chin and spoke.

"Same. A little worried though, to be honest."

"Why?" asked Lara, even though she knew.

"Sam called me, saying that you haven't been answering the phone. And that's what brings me here." After hearing no words come from Lara's mouth he spoke again.

"So what's been going on?" Lara simply shrugged.

"Just been looking at more historical myths..." She glanced down at the floor. Alex looked at her with concern. "What's wrong?" She looked back up and shook her head slightly.

"I'm fine, really. Just realized how absorbed I got into justifying my father's past. Sorting out everything I've found out has just been a lot to take on, that's all." Alex nodded in understanding.

"I'd imagine so. I'm sure it'll get better though, L.C." He smiled at her and glanced upward. His eyes met the portrait of a man and a woman, hanging above the fireplace. Alex studied them. The woman had her black hair wrapped up in a bun and the man had brown hair, which was combed back.

"My parents," Lara explained next to him. Alex faced her again. Her delicate face held a shameful expression. He turned back to the portrait, looking for the right words to say.

"They look like very intelligent people."

"The were," responded Lara quietly with her eyes still fixated on the portrait.

"That explains how smart you are." Alex cringed as soon as he said it. Fortunately, much to his relief, Lara cracked a smile.

"So this is your home," Alex said finally, after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, this is it." Lara stood on her feet. "How about going on that tour I promised you?"

"That'd be great." said Alex delightfully, standing up as well.

"Alright, this way." Alex proceeded to follow Lara through the halls of the manor. Lara showed him everything from the gym's ramps and ledges to the kitchen's striking design. She eventually led him inside the library, which resulted in Alex gawking at the seemingly infinite amount of books.

"Wow, someone's a bookworm." He winked at her. Lara laughed.

"Sam tells me that all the time." As the two headed to the main entrance to end the tour, they talked about the architecture of the building. They fell silent when they reached the large doors of the manor.

"You have a very nice home, Lara," complimented Alex, as him and Lara stepped outside. Lara thanked him, closing the door behind her. Alex skidded his feet against the concrete porch.

"Well," he said finally. "I should probably get going. Thanks for the tour." Lara smiled and stepped forward to hug him.

"Thanks for checking on me." Alex hesitated for a split-second before wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm glad that you're okay." After releasing each other, Alex began to back away towards his car.

"Bye."

"Bye," Lara said back as he turned to go. Alex suddenly turned back around.

"Lara," She turned to him. "I've been thinking a lot about that kiss back in the hospital."

"Oh..." said Lara, unsure of what else to say.

"So, when's the next adventure?" he asked nervously. Lara looked at him in confusion. "So I know when I'll be able to help out and receive another token of your appreciation?" he joked. A small laugh escaped Lara's lips. She thought about what Sam said to her before. _"You can tell he admires you a lot. He'd do anything for you." _Lara smiled to herself and stepped towards Alex. Once she reached him, she looked up at him and revealed her smile. She wasn't quite sure of her feelings, but she trusted her instincts, allowing her to trust Alex. Her gut nudged her into giving this a try.

"Why wait for another adventure?"

"Good point," chuckled Alex with a smile as he pulled her into a kiss. After a few seconds, they broke apart and Alex pulled Lara close. Lara wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, holding onto him more tightly than she had held onto anyone in a long time. An unfamiliar sense of security came over Lara, something she had long lost since her experience on the island of Yamatai. To have gained it back through Alex, a man she had yet to spend a ton of time with, astonished Lara in this very moment. She hoped to herself that this feeling would stick around.

The End


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